Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2017 June 14 - 20 [PEACE]

Orizuru Parade in support of anti-nuke UN Conference takes place

“An international treaty to ban nuclear weapons should be created! The Japanese government must agree on the treaty!” Voices of A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha) and peace-loving people echoed through downtown streets in Tokyo and Hiroshima on the weekend afternoon.

The action called the Orizuru (paper crane) Parade was organized on June 17 in concert with the anti-nuke action known as the Women’s March to Ban the Bomb in NYC held on the second day of the UN Conference to negotiate a nuclear weapons ban treaty which began on June 15 at the UN Headquarters.

Participants of the Orizuru Parade in Tokyo marched through the streets near Shinjuku Station.

At a rally held prior to the parade, Yamada Reiko of a Tokyo Hibakusha group, the Tokyo Federation of A-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Toyukai), delivered a speech. She said, “Hibakusha’s earnest wish is to witness a nuclear-free world while we are alive. I really hope that a legal framework to ban nuclear weapons will be established in the current session of the UN Conference.”

In the sister action held in Hiroshima, participants, holding a large Orizuru and a banner that reads, “A nuclear weapons ban treaty must be achieved!”, paraded toward the Atomic Bomb Dome. After the parade, they conducted a street campaign to collect signatures in support of the Hibakusha’s appeal for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

**********

In Hokkaido’s Sapporo City, 90 people, including Hibakusha, on June 17 took to the streets in the city’s downtown area to call for public support for the Hibakusha-led international signature-collection drive.

Representative of a Hokkaido Hibakusha group, Sanada Tamotsu used a microphone to talk about his A-bomb ordeal and called on passersby to sign the Hibakusha petition.

A 20-year-old female university student signed her name and said, “The government of the only A-bombed nation in the world should take the initiative and act to increase public awareness worldwide regarding the devastating consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.”

Past related articles:
> Shii issues statement welcoming draft N-ban treaty [ May 24, 2017]
> Antinuke UN conference historical 1st step toward N-ban treaty [April 4, 2017]